The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

Is uniqueness and originality in a novel enough to make one great? I believe that in order for this to be the case both need to be executed well. Mark Haddon in his novel, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time’ (‘Curious Incident’) executes uniqueness in such a way that it successfully creates empathy and understanding in the reader. This is done through the unique voice of the narrator who is a child with Aspergers. Haddon’s novel is not a narrative concerned with ‘overcoming’ a disability but rather about finding ways to co-exist with one. His novel is great because it allows the reader to step into a worldview that they wouldn’t usually have access to. He achieves this successfully through literary techniques and quotes as evidence, ultimately exploring themes regarding Aspergers and relationships. In this essay I will explore how through a unique perspective Mark Haddon has produced a great novel. Haddon firstly highlights and explores the theme of Aspergers syndrome through the novel’s perspective. The narrator of the text is Christopher Boone, a young boy who has this syndrome. By using this perspective the author creates a unique worldview (or allows us into a unique worldview?) and allows us insight into a perspective that is original, ultimately allowing readers to understand and see into his condition on a personal level. For example, although the novel is a murder mystery, roughly half of the chapters digress from this main plot to give us Christopher’s thoughts and feelings on certain issues and thus we consistently see Christopher’s- the narrator’s stream of consciousness on display rather than the text focusing wholly on the mystery itself. “It was seven minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shear’s house. Its eyes were closed.” From this opening quote we notice the use of specific? Detail and ultimately begin to catch a glimpse of the novels unique narrative style. As the...

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...The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon, is a novel giving an insight into the world of Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome. This condition leaves Christopher's ability to emotionally connect with other people non-existent. This idea centres around the book’s unique feel and theme of Christopher’s need for order and safety in his life as a necessity to function properly. It is soon clear however, that it is not only Christopher that has emotional issues. What the novel shows is that both his parents have behavioural problems of their own which cause the family to fall apart. Mark Haddon shows us how Christopher has to live, what he goes through and how people treat him to create sympathy in us for him. He used different techniques such as a first-person narrative, juxtaposition, irony, intertextuality and descriptive language to increase our sympathy towards him and enhance our overall understanding of the book.
Haddon tells the story in the first person narrative voice from Christopher’s point of view. This made the book more engaging and increased our sympathy towards Christopher because it was written from the point of view of an autistic teenager and it allowed the reader to get a better picture of how Christopher sees things in the world. This point of view opens our eyes to the many challenges that an autistic teenager like Christopher faces in...

...The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the NightTime
Task: Examine the techniques used by Mark Haddon to add to our understanding of the problems facing the central character, Christopher, due to Asperger’s Syndrome.
The novel “The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the NightTime” by Mark Haddon is a very unique novel. It is unique in many ways as it’s written through the eyes of someone with Aspegers Syndrome and this condition is explored throughout the novel. The novel is about a fifteen year old boy called Christopher who has Aspegers Syndrome. This condition doesn’t allow him to understand things the way people without this condition would. The novel shoes how Christopher grows up, some of the experiences he goes through and how he copes with and understands life. The themes in the novel are growing up, living with special needs and the most important theme family relationships.
“The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the NightTime” has a unique style in that it has been written through the eyes of a person with Aspegers. As it has been written through the eyes of a person with Aspegers it is different to most novels and reveals the writers personality. The narrator, Christopher Boone, who has Aspegers can’t understand people and has to include every detail...

...Many of the most brilliant and prestigious people in this world have reportedly suffered form the insidious disease of Autism. Some of whom are Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, and Andy Warhol. What may you ask do the following people have in common? They have all single handily made some of the most advanced contributions and theories of our time, allowing us a basis for more advanced studies today. The novel The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the Night-Time, tells a story of the main protagonist Christopher Boone as he battles many of the presenting challenges of a child diagnosed with autism. The probing novel explores many of the daily challenges Christopher faces, how he overcomes these challenges and who his accomplices are while facing these issues. Author Mark Haddon allows readers to see into the tainted mind of an extraordinary child with this disease and how he overcomes his inability to adapt to the challenges bestowed upon him.
The obstacles Chris encounters are not that of your typical 15 year old boy. Chris’s problems to the normal eye would not matter and be considered trivial, however because of Chris’ excessive need for everything in his life to be organized and structured he does not allows himself to eat food that touches on his plate. Christopher explains to readers the inner workings of the complexity of his mind:
“He was asking too...

...How does this extract from The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the Night-time introduce us to the important ideas in Haddon’s novel?
Disability or being different in society can be isolating. Disability, particularly those people with behavioural differences is a topic that has only become socially acceptable as a topic of conversation in recent times. Historically, any form of disability was seen as taboo and was not considered appropriate for ‘polite’ conversation. Haddon takes on an unconventional issue in a most unconventional way throughout his novel ‘The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the Night-time’. Not only is the novel an exploration of the effects of disabilities in a conformist society BUT he takes the responder on an expedition into the world of difference via the narrator, Christopher.
Disability may negatively impact one’s ability to cope with life’s complexities. Individuals that have behavioural differences are often misjudged. Christopher is a unique character who sees the world as orderly and has very low tolerance for disorder. As his audience, we are implicitly invited by the author to observe a more complex perspective beyond Christopher's world view. He usually obsesses over schedules as he finds it difficult not to follow a schedule. Christopher has difficult connecting to people on an emotional...

...The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the Night-time chronicles of Christopher Boone of Swindon, England. The book is written by Mark Haddon, who formerly worked with autistic individuals, describes the world through the eyes of Christopher, who is self-proclaimed “special needs”. The novel never explicitly says what Christopher’s diagnosis is, but from the text it is apparent that he would fall on the higher functioning end of the Autism Spectrum.
The book begins with, as the title suggests, a rather curiousincident with the neighbor, Mrs. Shear’s poodle Wellington. Shortly after midnight, Christopher wanders over to Mrs. Shear’s yard only to find Wellington dead on the grass with what appears to be a pitchfork driven through his body. At this point Christopher is discovered by Mrs. Shears and the police are called. When the police begin asking questions of Christopher, he does not like it and ends up hitting the police officer and getting arrested for assault. Here begins a conflicted relationship for Christopher with police authority that continues for the rest of the novel. It is at the police station where we first meet Christopher’s father and primary care giver. For the rest of the novel Christopher tries to become a detective and solve the mystery of who killed Wellington and why.
As Christopher begins his adventures in detective work he decides to...

...The curiousincident of the dog in the night-time
Mark Haddon
Christopher John Francis Boone is a 15 year old boy, living with his father(Ed Boone) at 36 Randolph street. He is told that his mother died while being sick at the hospital. While in fact she had left and went to London with a neighbor called “Mr Shears”. Christopher is also the narrator in the text.
Ed Boone is Christopher's single father. He makes meals and take care of Christopher’s daily needs.
He owns a heating maintenance and boiler repair business.
Christopher and Ed loves each other, but Christopher has a rather special way of showing it because he does not like to be touched, nor to chat about unimportant topics. But we can see that they have developed a way for them to show their love to each other without touching to much. They spread their fingers like a fan, and let the fingers and thumbs touch each other.
Christopher's father (Ed) is patient with how Christopher acts, and he takes Christopher's feelings into account. Like for instance when making food Christopher don't want to eat food that is touching each other on the plate, so he puts the food on the plate so it will not touch. Or he can change the color of food, whom has a color that Christopher does not like. In these cases we see that his father cares about him, and that he is patient about Christopher’s needs.
But we also see that Ed can get really angry...

...When we think about heroes, Superman, Batman and other stereotypical heroes usually come to mind, but perhaps it’s the people that the public eye might consider “flawed” that bring this concept of bravery and courage into perspective. In Mark Haddon’s The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the Night-time, Christopher is a most unexpected example of a hero. Although he may seem like an ordinary, 15-year-old boy, somewhat limited by autism, Christopher, in his own unique way, brings a new meaning to the word “hero”. Christopher shows the characteristics of a hero through his determination, and his ability to overcome his dependence on routines and certainties. This ability to conquer over his “disability” puts him above the common stereotypical hero.
Christopher is reliant upon schedules, routines, numbers and logic, but he is able to overcome this by following his feelings and turning to his sensitive side when all else fails. When Christopher find out that his father lied to him about his mother’s death, he is confused and mad, but despite this, he insists on finding his mother. Christopher is clearly in despair when he says “And then I realized there was nothing I could do which felt safe”(130, Haddon) and upon realizing this, he comes to a conclusion “Which meant that I had to go to London and live with Mother” (130-131, Haddon). Even though logic might suggest that Christopher would feel betrayed by...

...The CuriousIncident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Christopher’s idiosyncrasies in the text are- not eating food after it has touched other food, ‘if his senses become overloaded or his brain is confused’ he will curl up in a ball and groan and perhaps for hours at a time, he prefers red, hates brown and yellow, he uses consecutive colours of cars to determine if it were to be a good day or a bad day.
When I discussed my idiosyncrasies with my mum she stated- Every live stock truck that drives past I have an overwhelming habit to wave at the animals within in the confinement of the truck (due to my mother once being an office worker at an abattoir), the volume on whatever ever device that has volume always has to be a multiple of 8 but other than those two, I cannot think of anything else.
Personally I cannot relate to Christopher’s peculiarities, I can only think of one person and that was Darcy Clay from my primary school who had Aspergus, but I didn’t know him well enough to tell you his idiosyncrasies besides he was very shy.
“He’s only a young boy though?”
“Yeah and in a couple of years he could be a serial killer,”
Said Constable Kerr,
“If we don’t start locking up the bad, we will be dubbed as ‘pussys’, Caroline if you want to be the nice cop you can do paperwork.
“Okay, sorry for doubting you Kerr.”
Replying quickly, just to avoid any further confrontation.
“Now, go and...